THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL

Salford, my home town, grew around the quays. Located 40 miles inland, in the nineteenth century they were linked to the sea by a remarkable engineering feat, the Manchester Ship Canal. Constructed in only six years it gave Salford’s industrialists direct shipping links for their goods to the wider world. High rail bridges, swinging canal bridges and enormous locks still allow ships to travel inland and seeing gigantic ocean-going ships pass small cottages by the Latchford Locks still takes the breath away.